


The one where two angels put a moose to bed

by HikariYumi



Series: Hunting is dangerous [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Gabriel Lives, Gen, Hurt Sam Winchester, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Castiel, Protective Gabriel, Sick Sam, Sickfic, exhausted Sam, researching, short oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-11-22 20:39:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11387961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HikariYumi/pseuds/HikariYumi
Summary: The latest threat to the world is giving Team Free Will a hard time. And so in typical Winchester way, Sam stays silent about his sickness. Until Gabriel and Castiel discover it on accident, that is.





	The one where two angels put a moose to bed

**Author's Note:**

> Hello,  
> This is a second little thing of my sick!fic series. And it's actually a prompt from the lovely Majinie. I'm not sure if I completed it but well :) have a sick sam.
> 
> Prompt: Okay, can we have some sick Sam? Because during the trials he was adorable (remember the "I'm gonna go, uh, do the thing, you know?" - "no, you're gonna get some rest." - "or I could do that", followed by Sam collapsing onto the bed and falling asleep), caretaker Gabriel (maybe with Cas if you feel like it) and it's a virus, which means they can't just heal him, they have to nurse him properly, and it's kind of serious since he's successfully kept it under wraps until it overwhelmed him.
> 
> This is a series where I'm open for prompts. Any ideas for a sick fic? Regardless of the character? Send them!
> 
> Have fun!  
> ~Hikari

Gabriel hadn't returned too long ago and he hadn't bothered to explain to anyone how that had happened. And surprisingly enough, neither Dean nor Sam had pondered over that question for too long. Castiel assumed that a resurrected archangel didn't held enough confusion anymore to serve as an extensive topic. After all, coming back to life wasn't exactly a new thing for the brothers anymore.  
  
So, their little group had received another more or less steady member and in these dangerous times everyone welcomed that.

Everyone was worn down, even Crowley showed signs of fatigue, totally uncommon for demons, especially the powerful ones. Naturally, the two humans of their team were even more affected. Castiel had provided Dean with his favourite food two days ago, assisted by the demon, and afterwards sent him to get some rest. It had taken a lot of effort because the hunter seemed determined to uphold his reputation of being a stubborn and self-destructive individual until the two mighty beings had nearly forced him into submission.  
  
But it proved itself a good decision.

That left Sam.  
  
The younger Winchester had just kept going, providing the group with always-new research and greeting them with a freshly brewed pot of coffee every morning the non-human members showed up. In this regard, he wasn't too different from his brother.  
  
Fortunately, Castiel wasn't the only one who noticed this fact, Gabriel did as well.

While Dean was out for a 'beer run' as he called it, the archangel strolled over to Castiel, idly stripping a ridiculously big candy bar of its wrapper.  
  
"Hey, Cassie" he drawled, feigning his usual nonchalance even though he was steering their path away from Sam. The hunter didn't even look up when the Angels shuffled out of the main room, too absorbed in the old lore books he had dug out a few hours ago.

"We can't just watch him work himself into the ground," Gabriel decided, eyes determined and serious. Castiel nodded, he was the last one that needed to be convinced of that.  
  
"You can count on my assistance, Gabriel."  
  
"Why do you sound as if you had any say in that, brother?"

Silently, Castiel followed the older Angel back into the main room where Sam hadn't moved an inch in the past minutes. He sat there, hunched over, brow slightly furrowed, pale.  
  
The brothers exchanged a quick look before Gabriel strolled over, leaning against the table casually. That finally pulled Sam out of his study and the young man blinked up at the archangel owlishly.  
  
"Oh, hey. What's the matter?"  
  
"Nothing, Sasquatch, nothing. Or wait, you, you are the matter."

Brows furrowing further in irritation Sams eyes wandered over to Castiel, silently asking for clarification.

"We are concerned for your wellbeing, Sam. We think you could profit of a break."

When the hunter opened his mouth to object, Gabriel chimed in, drawing the attention back to himself.

"Don't you dare to tell me that I'm wrong. I know that you've been working for the last two and a half days straight, all the while constantly chiding your brother when he's doing the same."

Obviously, Sam realized that Gabriel had a point there and sighed in frustration. Still, he neither closed the book nor made any other move to follow the sentiment. Castiel frowned in confusion and exchanged a glance with his brother.

Gabriel just rolled his eyes and snatched the tome from Sam’s hands to snap it shut.  
  
"Since you agree on me you won't need that any longer. It's still gonna be here tomorrow."

Grumbling silently the hunter stroked back his long hair but it didn't have the desired effect and immediately flopped back into his face. Maybe, Castiel mused, Dean was right with bugging Sam to get a hair cut.  
  
"Come on, Sasquatch. Go, get yourself some rest at least until your brother returns. Sounds like a deal?"  
Apparently it did, since Sam reluctantly rose to his feet, swaying slightly.

"Sam. Are you alright?"  
  
The hunter didn't look at him as the minimal rest of color drained from his pale face. Gabriel was next to him in a second just in time to catch the body going limp. Despite the archangel's inhuman strength, the comparatively small vessel was half buried under the hunter's larger frame.  
  
"A little help over here would be nice, Cassie."  
  
"Of course."

By the time the Angels had lowered Sam onto the ground, the hunters eyes were fluttering again. Seconds later they flew open again, needing a bit to regain focus.  
  
"Hey there, Sammy. Welcome back. You gave us kind of a scare here." Castiel noticed that Gabriel wasn't as chipper as he pretended to be. But he decided not to comment on that. "Now, now, stay down, will ya?"  
  
The archangel gently pushed Sam down when he attempted to rise to his feet. Gabriel searched for Castiel's eyes and raised an eyebrow in question.  
  
"Sam, weren't you feeling well?" the Angel inquired quietly but only earned a half-hearted shrug. At least he was more responsive than Dean had been.

Sighing softly Gabriel helped the hunter up and kept steadying him even though Sam mumbled that this wouldn't be necessary. Still, the two angels brought him into his room as well as into his bed without any further complaints. Castiel didn't need his brothers comment to understand that this implied Sam really wasn't doing well.  
  
"He's running a fever." Gabriel frowned and quickly the Angel tried to remember what to do in such a case.  
"Do you think that's happening due to exhaustion?" Fortunately, Castiel recalled an article about this topic he'd read after becoming aware of the constant pressure that was wearing the Winchesters down.

"Maybe," Gabriel answered vaguely. "That or he caught something."  
  
Castiel wondered which would be the better case, but he didn't ask. He raised his arm instead and tapped Sam’s forehead lightly. It felt uncharacteristically cold and sweaty despite Gabriels claim of fever.  
  
"It’s a virus," he informed while pulling his hand back. The hunter didn't really seem to follow their interaction, his eyes roamed through the room aimlessly.  
  
"Yeah, and the exhaustion fuels it nicely." Gabriel confirmed gravely. "You couldn't have said something, right? You just had to be an idiot like your brother, didn't you?"

Sam mumbled something that vaguely resembled an excuse but otherwise didn't react. It wasn't the time to be intrigued by the human possibility to function despite negative circumstances before someone interrupted that, but Castiel was nevertheless.  
  
Only when they had tried to make the hunter rest, the symptoms had shown themselves in broad daylight. The Angel wondered how long Sam would've been able to keep that up. Knowing the Winchesters the answer would most likely have been: as long until they had taken care of everything else.

Sam stayed in bed even after Dean’s return. It wasn’t as if he would have been able to do otherwise since his condition had grown worse with the minute. Gabriel had taken up the task of keeping the hunter hydrated while Castiel had been sent to calm down the older brother and stop him from barging in.  
  
That hadn’t gone too well, in the angel's opinion, since it had taken additional assistance from Crowley to coax Dean out of the room so that Sam could get some needed rest.

On Gabriel's orders, the younger angel had been sent to obtain food for them all, excluding himself since he tended not to indulge those things. So when Castiel returned one and a half hours later, it had gotten dark and late. First he made his way into the older Winchester's room where he was relieved to see that the demon had yet to return to hell and was instead debating quietly with Dean about a show they were apparently watching. The angel had been worried that Dean might’ve taken up Sam's work as soon as no one paid attention to him anymore, but fortunately that wasn’t the case.  
  
Castiel left them to their steak and burgers and intended to deliver the hot soup as well as the bag of caramel drops to his brother and the younger hunter. When he opened the door, he could tell that Sam was still fast asleep, curled up on Gabriel's lap. The archangel looked up at the sound of the old doors creaking hinges but didn’t made a move and kept pressing a wet washcloth gently against the young man's forehead.  
  
“Put it over there, Cassie. I’ll wake him in a minute.” It didn’t take much to understand the words as a dismissal, so Castiel just quietly placed the boxes on the night stand and left. Uncertain what to do now, the angel wandered through the quiet and empty bunker, ending up at the table they used for research. Sighing softly he flopped down on the chair and tried to figure out what Sam had been working through. If he managed to get a little more information, the brothers would have some more time to rest, after all.

It grew proportionally harder to make Sam stay in his bed as the days went on. After three days the fever had started to wear down and after another two the hunter appeared nearly back in normal state again. But despite that Gabriel, as well as Castiel, had made a point of keeping Sam resting so that he wouldn’t cause a relapse immediately by throwing himself directly back into work.  
  
Still, the angels, backed up by an intimidating demon, managed to keep the brothers in check until finally both of them appeared human again. More awake than probably in years, they all went back to search for a solution, and interestingly enough, not long after they did find a hint that led them to something that worked in their favour.  
  
Castiel couldn’t be more glad.


End file.
